August 2002

Thursday, August 1 at 7:30p.m.
Mark Jenkins
The Hard Way: Stories of Danger, Survival and the Soul of Adventure (Simon)

An adventure writer for Backpacker, The Washington Post, and Outside, Jenkins journeys to the most difficult and dangerous places on the planet monthly, making a living out of doing things the hard way. From climbing the ice-rimmed Matterhorn, to descending unexplored canyons in Australia, and sea-kayaking between battlefields along the Turkish Coast of Gallipoli, this unstoppable adventurer will teach you never to look before leaping.

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Monday, August 5 at 7:30p.m.
Holly Payne
The Virgin's Knot (Dutton)

Shimmering with the history and lore of Turkish culture, The Virgin's Knot tells the tale of Nurdane, a famed weaver who creates dazzling rugs for young brides that have within the threads the healing power of legends. Extraordinary events drive this blessed virgin artist to struggle against remaining pure in spirit and body, or risking everything to live a loving life.

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Wednesday, August 7 at 7:30p.m.
Nick McDonell
Twelve (Grove / Atlantic)

Hunter S. Thompson writes, "Nick McDonell is the real thing, a powerful young writer with the look of a dangerous freak and very sharp teeth. The ratio of age to talent is horrifying. His trick is he writes the truth. I'm afraid he will do for his generation what I did for mine." Written by a seventeen-year-old senior from New York City, Twelve is a chilling chronicle of urban adolescence that has already created an international sensation.

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Tuesday, August 13 at 7:30p.m.
Mark Spragg
The Fruit of Stone (Penguin)

Mark Spragg, author of Where Rivers Change Direction, is a favorite here at the Book Cafe. Of The Fruit of Stone Kent Haruf says, " Spragg knows the Rocky Mountain West better than almost anyone, and he's made of it a compelling metaphor for the rest of the country. This new book is full of smart troubled people, natural speech, wonderful, lyrical prose and a great wide varied landscape of Wyoming, where good men and deep women play out their love-burdened lives. ...Mark Spragg owns one of the truest and most original new voices in American letters." We couldn't agree more.

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Wednesday, August 14 at 7:30p.m.
Pam Chung
The Money Dragon (Sourcebooks)

In this stunning work of Chinese-American fiction, Pam Chun brings to life the story of Lau Ah Leong, the Money Dragon, who is considered to be the founder of Honolulu's Chinatown and one of the legends of Hawai'i. The great-granddaughter of Ah Leong, Chun reaches deep into her family history to deliver a fictionalized account of the rising tumult and opportunities that occurred when the sweeping advances of the Western World collided with the deep-rooted traditions of the Chinese culture.

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Monday, August 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Julie Suhr
Ten Feet Tall Still (Marinera Publishing)

"I've ridden 27,000 mile of endurance trails - that's more than once around the world - and that's not nearly enough," writes 77-year-old Julie Suhr, the Grand Dame of endurance horseback riding. Not only for horse lovers, but for anyone who has dreamed and struggled, this journey of joy and passion takes us to six continents - from the Pony Express Trail to Botswana, Siberia, France, Mongolia and Australia - and tells of the horses and people that have shaped an extraordinary life.

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Tuesday, August 20 at 7:30 p.m.
James D. Houston and Alan Cheuse
Coast to Coast

Join us as an east coast writer and a west coast writer read from their works and compare views on contemporary writing and the literary life. Alan Cheuse, nationally known reviewer for NPR's All Things Considered, is the author nine works of fiction and nonfiction, most recently Listening to the Page: Adventures in Reading and Writing (Columbia). Based in Washington D.C., he visits Santa Cruz each summer. James D. Houston's widely acclaimed novel, Snow Mountain Passage, is now available in paperback. Based on the experiences of a family who came into California with the infamous Donner Party in l846/47, it was named by the L.A.Times and The Washington Post as one of the best books of 200l

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Thursday, August 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Joy Fielding
Whispers and Lies (Pocket)

Joy Fielding is a master of suspense and lyrical prose. Set in lush, Delray, Florida, Whispers and Lies is the story of a single middle-aged woman living contentedly in her house near the beach until the day a mysterious young woman moves in the cottage behind her. Suddenly, her otherwise peaceful existence is changed forever. This is novel that haunts you weeks after you finish the final pages.

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Thursday, August 22 at 7:00p.m.
World Affairs Book Club
Open Veins of Latin America
by Eduardo Galeano

There is perhaps no other region in the world as vital as Latin America is to the United States yet which has historically been so underrepresented by American scholarship and media. This month the Book Cafe's World Affairs Book Club turns its attention to this little understood continent with Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano. First published in 1973, this classic polemic of Latin American history describes the territory's exploitation by the world's great powers and by its own upper classes since the 16th century. The American Library Association calls it, "a superbly written, excellently translated, and powerfully persuasive exposé which all students of Latin American and U.S. history must read." Please join the Book Cafe for a stimulating discussion with Graham Parsons as the facilitator.

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Friday, August 23 at 7:30p.m.
Scott Philips
The Walkaway (Ballantine)

The author of the best-selling novel, The Ice Harvest, returns to Capitola for his delicious new thriller, The Walkaway. Set in Wichita, Kansas, our hero is Gunther Fahnstiel. On Christmas morning, 1979, this usually unlucky man ends up with a suitcase full of loot. Unfortunately he doesn't hold onto the money for long. Ten years later, Gunther escapes his nursing home to try and find the hidden money. On his tail is a detective trying to piece together clues to two unsolved murders, a young grifter who sees dollar signs, Gunther's stepson who stumbles into a mystery and Gunther's wife who risks her husband's safety for the sake of keeping their secrets. With dual story lines told in 1952 and 1989, The Walkaway acts as both a masterful prequel and a sequel to The Ice Harvest.

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Tuesday, August 27 at 7:30p.m.
Linda Greenlaw
The Lobster Chronicles (Hyperion)

After seventeen years at sea, Greenlaw decided to quit as a swordboat captain, the career that earned her a role in Sebastian Junger's book and film The Perfect Storm, and return home to a tiny island seven miles off the coast of Maine that boasts a population of 70--- 30 of whom are her relatives. The simpler life does not go as planned as lobsters refuse to be caught and mainlanders continue to fish waters reserved for islanders, threatening retaliatory attacks and violence. Author of the bestseller The Hungry Ocean, Greenlaw employs her talent for fascinating nautical description and her eye for small-town dramas as she tells a story that is both hilarious and moving. A must for anyone who dreams of boats or the ocean, or anyone who has ever reached a crossroads in life.

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Thursday, August 29 at 7:30p.m.
Alexander Blakely
Siberia Bound (Sourcebooks)

Fresh out of college with a degree in economics, Blakey is drawn to frozen, desolate Siberia by the promise of love and the idealistic urge to bring capitalism to the former Soviet Union. What he finds is an unexpected romance, an opportunistic Russian business partner and a new free-market system manipulated by the same people who drove the crumbling communist system to the ground. Both haunting and hilarious, Siberia Bound is a stunning portrait of the "new" Russia.